"Now why would anyone destroy a perfect Single Malt by pouring them together? Just go buy some blend instead!" I can almost hear you scream. It is sure a controversial subject amongst Single Malt Whisky drinkers which more than once has led to interesting discussions.

For many however, the art of making their own vatted Malts isn't about destroying sacred Malts, but a practice done which much care, and in respect of the Malts in question. Not to mention the fun element in all this. Which enthusiastic Single Malt drinker did not dreamed of being a master blender creating his own compositions of the finest Single Malts available to him?

And it is not just enthusiast's doing it either. Cardhu is very popular in Spain, actually Cardhu is so popular in Spain that in July 2003 owner of the Malt, Diageo, turned the Malt into a vatted Malt containing a large portion of Cardhu, as well as Glendullan and up to two other Malts.

Let's try to put aside the sacred belief that Single Malts should be kept as they are, and see if we can look at this with a open mind. Who knows, you might be surprised with the possibilities that open up with those few bottles you have tucked away for a long time now ...

The uncrowned King of Home Vatting

During the background research for this article I kept seeing the same name popping up over and over as a enthusiast home-vatter, Ralph Katzenell. I asked Ralph how he got started with making his own home-vattings: "A friend gave me a bottle of Miltonduff 12. Smooth and as near tasteless as anything I have ever met. How do they do that? A miracle of production! It sat on a shelf for over 6 months. Then, I got a really good bottle of Adelphi Glen Grant 30 yo, cask 1706, a classic sherry monster. It got consumed with predictable rapidity, and little prospect of getting another. I tried to stretch the last dram or two with the Miltonduff. Yea ! The result was an immediate great success. With about 10% GG / 90% Miltonduff the vat was just GG, a little less stunning, but superb nevertheless", he replied.

Here we see already one good reason for making a home vatting; extending the life of a very pronounced Malt, which even after being vatted with a less pronounced Malt still has power enough to dominate in the vatting.

Ralph explains me the second reason he makes home vattings, and that is to add a note to a already good Single Malt. In that exercise your goal is to pick characteristics from separate Malts and marry them together into a new Malt with more complexity then on their own.

Another reason might even for the purists under us be a acceptable way to do home vatting. Usually older expressions from the same distillery will add up in complexity. Take for example a 8 year Glenfarclas and a 15 year Glenfarclas, the difference is striking. Adding an amount of the 15 year to the 8 year will add a lot of complexity to the (much cheaper) 8 year old expression. And then there are the 25 and even the 30 year old Glenfarclas expressions too ... Making such vattings are even good for your wallet, as Ralph agrees: "There is also an economic angle here. After all, single Malts are not give-aways, and for some its not easy to always get what you want at a price that you can afford. If you can make that expensive favorite go a little further with a cheaper mixer, why not?"

For those who now think they found a purpose for that awful Malt that just never seems to get empty, Ralph has a warning: "Nothing can improve a bad Whisky. I use vatting to enhance Whisky, or to stretch it. Not to mask a bad one", he starts. "I have been unable to find any tricks that cover up undesirable selected components. Bad Whisky is just bad Whisky. Consign it to the rubbish dump, or keep as an horrible example to frighten the children."

Do you dare to vat these Single Malts together?

The living bottle

With some searching on the MALTS mailing list I found an email from Stefan Bugler who has a whole other technique altogether. He has as he calls it himself a "living Islay bottle". "I made sure that all current distilleries + P.E. went in there. So all distilleries of late are present. I add what I feel would give the vatting an edge, like 1+1=3. There I have to thank Richard Patterson for giving me a great insight how he creates blends and what he is looking for", Stefan replied to me when I asked him what his recipe for his vatted Malt is.
"I add more when the 35cl bottle has about 5 to 10cl left. So I don't care about changes. The thing that started me of was Cadenheads Islay Vatted -great idea, I thought, and had some FWP Bowmores I wanted to get rid of. That worked well." There you have it, idea's can come to you from all over.
"There were so many people who where absolutely startled and found so many characteristics, i.e. hm certainly Ardbeg, but this reminds me of Laphroaig, this of Caol Ila - what the hell is it??"

Time to get our hands dirty

Now how do we make a actual vatting? It all of course depends on the type of vatting we want to make. To stretch the lifetime of a good bottle of Malt we will need a carrier (the base of the vatting which will make up the majority of the vatting) which wont dominate the Malt we want to stretch. Ralph gives some tips: "Some Bladnochs by CC spring to mind, and dare I say it? A Springbank 10 yo by Blackadder was just - nothing. But it's a pretty weird thing to do, deliberately hunt the stores for a blank Whisky !!" One of Ralphs favorite carrier is the Scapa 12 year old. "Cragganmore 12 yo and Oban 14 yo are also potential carriers. Pretty inoffensive, nice enough on their own, but easily dominated by more aggressive bottlings. But for the moment, Scapa 12 yo it is."

Once you picked your carrier, it is time to add the Malt you wish to prolong its life. "I add somewhere between 10% to 20 % of the Whisky that I want to stretch. A successful vat is one where the added component just takes over. Utter domination", Ralph explains. It would of course miss it's purpose if you would add too much of your precious Malt, so keep adding little bits until you get the desired effect.

Some Malts that easily will dominate a carrier Ralph recommends are Balmenach 12 yo from the Flora and Fauna series, Signatory Caol Ila 9 to 11 years old, Linkwood 12 years old and expressions from Laphroaig like a Signatory 15 year old and of course the ever dominant Cask Strength OB.

To create a vatting with characteristics of both Malts the technique is a little different. "For me, this usually means adding either a sherry note to an Islay Whisky or an Islay note to a sherried Whisky", Ralph starts explaining. Domination is not of issue here, as we want the carrier Malt still be present in the final vatting. "So usually just the merest splash gets added. Maximum, say, about 5%. Here, the single-toned monsters tend to be the most effective. But that's just me. Again, its the good whiskies that make the most enjoyable vatters." Experimentation is the key, and what works for you, might be a total failure to someone else.

Things can go even beyond bold, as this brave soul dared to explain in a email to the MaltS-L mailinglist : "It ain't Scotch, it ain't bourbon, and it sure as heck is no bland Canadian Whisky: Take about equal parts of Jack Daniels, Aberlour 10yo and Canadian Club then add a good jolt of Abunadh and you've got what I've been drinking." Now I am not trying to convince you to go this route ...

So how are we going to vat our Malts? We simply pour the liquids together in our tasting glass and drink away? You might want to keep notes of the measurements of each Malt you added to the vatting, as you might want to reproduce the vatting later if it turns out to be a perfect match.

At a pharmacist there are tools available that will aid you measuring how much you use of each liquid in the form off medicine cups with milliliter scales and pipets. Using these two tools you can easily make a single dram of a vatting, and reproduce it later with a successful match. Other tools like glass cylinder measures and a funnel which will help pouring liquids back into bottles might also be tools worth getting.

"As an analytical chemist, I have a fair amount of simple, accurate and precise liquid measuring tools available. Originally, I did my measurements with great care. But it got onerous that way - not much fun at all. Now my unit of volume measurement is the drop, then the dash, followed by the splash." Now I'm not sure if everyone's "drop", "dash" and "splash" will have a consistent nature like they would be from an analytical chemist, but Ralph is right when he says making your own home vattings should be about having fun the most.

I asked Ralph if he could tell a bit about his more successful vattings. "My most enjoyable vattings are those I'm forced into when a really good bottle is coming to it's end, there's no chance of getting another soon, and I really want to prolong the pleasure. That's a lot of bottlings over the years !! The 1968 Glengoyne Cask 4616, Glen Grant Cask 1706, the 2002 Port Charlotte new make spirit (the peat content goes off-scale), most Ardbegs (scratch the 17 yo), Adelphi Highland Park 26 yo, anything out of Port Ellen, some Macallan 18 yo."

Is there life after Vatting Malts?

For Ralph things can't go crazy enough though ... If mixing Single Malts is not controversial enough, see what he is planning next ... "Here's an interesting point worth looking into. Can you vat a good Whisky into a vodka? Now, I've always had a strong prejudice against vodka. What's it for? Seems to me the only point of it is to get widdled - and that is definitely NOT what we are all about. But as a carrier ? Hmmm. . . . Interesting potential field of research there. Would you commit to vatting an expensive and rare class Whisky - say a 20 yo Port Ellen Sherry Butt, or a Glen Rothes 30 yo into vodka ? This needs to be looked into !!"

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On 05 August 2003, Jeroen added the next comment:

I've been experimenting with Ledaig and a "dash" Laphroaig 10 CS, and it's outcome is a wonderfull full Malt full of Pepper and power. Defenitally one I'll be pouring myself in the future again.

On 18 August 2003, Patrick added the next comment:

I have been experimenting with Cardhu 12 years old and Balvenie Double Wood, in 3/4 1/4 parts. This turned out to have the nose of the Cardhu, where the lacking finish of the Cardhu is compensated with the Balvenie. But the real surprise came when on a base of 2 parts Cardhu I added 1 part Longmorn 15 year. The nose is still very much dominated by the Cardhu which excels in this area, and the Longmorn contributes a lot in the body. And the finish is the real winner here! This one turned out to be a perfect harmonious vatting which I am really pleased with.

On 19 August 2003, Uncle Ralph added the next comment:

After doing this wee write-up on home vatting, I got to thinking that I had been pretty unfair about Scapa OB 12 yo as a "carrier" for vatting. After all, it is very acceptable on it's own and really is wasted as a vatting carrier. The mission: to find an easily available work-horse carrier. Vodka ! I bought really 4 cheap-and-nasties (less than 4$/700 ml locally), a locally-sold 95% abv for consumption (costs pennies), and obtained samples of Smirnoff, Absolut and Finlandia. Our local programmers (all those Russians) contributed an astonishing variety of vodka samples. In addition, I was able to get AnalaR analytically-pure grade ethanol (as pure as it gets without making a real song-and-dance) from a friendly lab and to cap it all, some ultrapure chromatographic grade ethanol. All tastings and vattings were carried out after dilution to 40% with pure water (18MegaMhos) from a lab reverse-osmosis supply. The test whiskies were Glenfarclas 12 yo and Caol Ila Signatory 12 yo at 46%. The dilutions were 20% whisky to 80% carrier. First off, and as I see it at the moment, my most significant impression through the blurred haze, is that ultra-pure alcohol, diluted to 40% abv - or 43% or 46% for that matter, has a "bite". A bit of roughness on the palate and throat as it goes down. No aftertaste, but definitely an "after-bite". So too does Analar. As I understand it then, "smoothness" or a "velvet mouth-feel" in a whisky has to mean that smooth whiskies have a congener, or more than one acting in concert, which suppresses the bite. All of the vodkas had a bite, and hints of something that could be called taste, but what, I don't know. One little sip of most of them and frankly - I don't want to know. Yeuchh!! To cut the story short, the best of the commercially available vatting carriers by a long head was Finlandia , followed by Absolut then Smirnoff. The local cheapos introduced an added element of roughness that could be detected even in 50/50 with Glenfarclas 12 yo. Useless, just a waste of good whisky. The 95% cooking alcohol, diluted appropriately, was also a bit rough, but would do in extremis. Finlandia seemed to me similar to the ultra-pure alcohol, but a little smoother and had least effect on the "profile" of the whisky. Finlandia it is. I am now sober again.

On 19 August 2003, Jeroen added the next comment:

Uh Ralph.. I had to read your post 2 times to make sure I read what I read, haha this Finlandia, you would say it is a good "carrier" for a home vatting? Or would you still prefer a malt which would easily be dominated by a stronger malt? Mixing malts is already controversial, let alone mixing malts with a vodka ...

On 20 August 2003, Uncle Ralph added the next comment:

Ahhhh. There comes a time when you just gotta face the truth, painful as it may be. Ideally, I'd like a "dead" whisky to dilute down my good ones. Its amazing how the taste response is not "linear". A good whisky just shines through. The problem is to find a classy "dead" carrier. I had a Miltonduff 12 yo, and Arty gave me a Signatory Rosebank that was smooth - but was it whisky? Its actually quite rare to find a tasteless dead whisky. And anyway, who is going to put in the effort looking for one? We need a database of experience on whisky-stretchers. THis is one direction I looked in, and to tell the truth - it was an interesting experience ! Most vodka is **** (This is a family site - the children might be looking). Finlandia was useable. its available, and it does not cost too much. If you - or anyone else - can come up with another suggestion, I'll try it!

On 20 August 2003, Patrick added the next comment:

I heard of people mixing Whisky with Rum .... For me it would go just a tad to far though! I can see the benefits of homevatting for both creating new blends as well as "extending", but to mix it up with vodka or any other spirit.. It would loose too much character for me I'm afraid.

On 06 February 2004, Jonathan added the next comment:

I bought that new Cadenhead Ardbeg and i'm really dissapointed with it. But after adding a bit of Ardbeg 10 it becomes a nice strong (ABV is still high above 50) 10 year (they are both 10 year) Ardbeg. Not as daring as some souls above me have ventured into, but sure saved me that "cardbeg".

On 16 December 2005, E.O. added the next comment:

Stuart Thomson of Ardbeg is mixing Ardbeg with a dash of rum...

On 21 March 2006, adhil added the next comment:

fine

On 16 April 2006, Eric added the next comment:

I'm an Englishman, my late father once told me that his father used to distill his own whisky but to get the taste to how he liked it, he used to put a bottle of Glen Morage into a demijohn of homemade. Personally, I can't understand how he could take such a risk.